Glad to be back!!! Oh boy, maybe I wish I could leave again.....

Hi everyone. Sorry I have not posted in a while, I was out having baby George! Ok, the sad thing is, baby George is not actually an infant, but rather a tumor larger than anyone in the medical profession locally has seen. We decided it needed a name, so baby George was born. But all is well, and I am working from home. (And I get a new wardrobe out of the deal!) Anyways, I returned to work from home, and got dumped right back into the midst of the datawarehouse miseries. Report web sites that no longer work, data reconciliation of financials that are millions of dollars off and so on. And I found to my dismay that my former colleague (who went back to his country) left documentation in the form of thousands of zip files, containing thousands of zip files. And generic names on the files like mod78, deliverables, etc. And that my other wonderful comrades in arms had deleted all the historical data from our datawarehouse feeds, so when I needed to find out information from data already loaded..... well needless to say it was not a pretty sight. Oh and did I mention that one of my comrades accidentally deleted the most current version of an entire database by deleting the log file of a SQL database? What is truly the cause of these evils is the focus of this post. We were using a "MegaServer" (or at least we thought we were). It had 500 Gig of space, and 2 Gigs of Ram. 4 Processors seperate Fast controllers, you know what you would consider a "dream" server. But unfortunately, the "Dream" server had not had proper analysis of needs done before purchased, and was seriously lacking in disk space, backup procedures and even backup hardware. And it was stored back in a wonderfully designed computer room that had all the bells and whistles including a automatic loading tape drive, with backup procedures already established. Too bad the server was not hooked to any of this. It stood alone, carrying the responsibility of converting memberships and financial data from many systems into one large database. No one seemed to realize that it might be just a little bit important. Once the server started being used, there were days when 200 gig files were dumped onto the server and then run through an Oracle and SQL server conversion process. Needless to say the server quickly became fragmented, started timing out, and basically provided the response of an old Pentium II 200. When everyone realized the server needed to be reformated, and perhaps upgraded, all of a sudden there was no where to put the data currently residing on it. And no one wanted to spend the $500 to buy even an external drive. So what do you do? Well, people found ways to make space. They deleted all historical data. Removed all documentation (It would be nice to know where they put it at), and left only the most current information on the server. So. I now have one big mess. It is my task to somehow backup that data (using our 100 Gig tape drive), reformat the drive and reload. I have no documentation on what the information currently on the server relates to, or when it was used. And meanwhile, people want upgrades and changes to the information that was loaded. Anyone want to do some volunteer work? It would be a wonderful learning experience!!! I have already decided that for my own piece of mind, I am probably going to invest in either an external drive, or something that I feel will hold that data. The bottom line is, even if it's not my problem, it will become mine if the data is lost. And just a note to anyone facing simliar situations (and hopefully I will catch you BEFORE you get to this point)... ALWAYS overestimate the needs of a file server. Double or Triple the storage space. The costs of storage and memory today is so small, that its not worth it in the long run to cut corners. NEVER remove data without backing it up and labeling it. And then having a fireproof area that you save all backups to. And backup on a regular basis. ALWAYS document what you have done. Leaving a table structure and DDF is just not enough for the next person. And you may say "Well they should have asked me for that", but remember they don't know what you have done and what to ask for. It's your responsibility as a professional to make sure that your work is high quality and easily duplicated. Especially if you work as a consultant and there are no issues of intellectual property. These seem like very simple things, but you would be surprised how very few people follow these simple steps. It will save your sucessors many headaches. And one more thing, if you decide to move back to another country, please leave your phone number or email address so someone can contact you!!! Ok, I hoped you all enjoyed my sojourn into misery. Until next time.... Kawaii